Battle of Hampton Roads

The Battle of Hampton Roads was a famous naval battle of the American Civil War which was fought from 8 to 9 March 1862. The battle saw the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Merrimack fight for two days for control of the James River in Virginia, and, although the Union flotilla suffered heavy losses, the Confederates failed to break the Union blockade.

The Union had been worried about the Confederate States Navy's addition of iron plating to the steam frigate Merrimack, with US Secretary of War Edwin Stanton fearing that the Confederates would send their new ironclad warship to bombard the White House in Washington DC. The Union responded by hiring Swedish immigrant inventor John Ericsson to build a warship to rival the Merrimack, and he built USS Monitor, which sailed down the East River from New York City to bring the Merrimack to battle off Hampton Roads, Virginia. The Union fleet at Hampton Roads was attacked by Merrimack, which attacked USS Cumberland in a ramming attack; the Cumberland was unable to penetrate the armor plating on Merrimack, and it was not long before it was sinking in shallow water. Shortly after, USS Congress was set on fire, while USS Minnesota was driven aground and forced to draw back for the night. At 1:00 AM the next morning, Monitor passed alongside the Minnesota, giving the appearance of an immense shingle carrying a cheese-box. The next morning, an epic battle began between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimack, and they fired at each other hull-to-hull, colliding five times as the men inside, blinded with smoke, continued to load and reload the guns as they fired. After four hours, the Merrimack drew off, ending her only fight. Two months later, when the Confederates were forced out of Norfolk, they blew up Merrimack. Both sides continued to produce more ironclads, making every other navy on Earth obsolete.